Industry News

Global Micro-CHP market to treble

Delta-ee latest research forecasts that the value of the global micro-CHP market will reach €3.2 billion in 2019, up from €0.9 billion in 2014. Fuel cells are driving the growth of the global market.

Fuel cells drive growth but engines continue to dominate in Europe

Fuel cell products have increased from 0% of global sales in 2008 to over 70% of global sales in 2014. Meanwhile, the global share of engine-based micro-CHP products has fallen from 100% in 2008 to under 30% in 2013.

Japan accounted for the vast majority of global fuel cell micro-CHP installations in 2013 and the same is expected for 2014. In September 2014 the total number of fuel cell accumulative installations surpassed 100,000 in Japan – marking a major milestone for the industry. Significant subsidies will continue to drive the market in Japan and the number of installations will rise rapidly.

In contrast, engine-based products continue to dominate today in the European market and this looks set to continue. Even in 2019, engine micro-CHP will still have over three quarters of the European market, with fuel cells having less than one quarter of sales. The costs of fuel cell products are expected to remain too high for most European customers and subsidies similar to those seen in Japan are unlikely.

Strong competition

However, there promises to be strong competition between Asian and European companies to grab the growing fuel cell market in Europe.

Scott Dwyer, Principal Analyst at Delta-ee said “The global micro-CHP market is primed for growth. We expect the Japanese market to remain strong in the near term and growing sales will enable product costs to fall. At the same time we see new and innovative business models emerging. These can remove the up-front cost barrier that exists for many potential customers. These factors will enable the installed base of global micro-CHP products to reach 1 million in the next five years.”

These are some findings of the latest research from the Delta-ee Micro-CHP Research Service, running since 2004. The detailed market analysis reveals who the main players are, their market shares, which markets are the focus for activity, and what the prospects are for each technology.